Dr. Wes and Miranda: Regarding your recent article on participation in athletics as part of an Individualized Education Program, it appears very possible that the student and parent who wrote in are using the IEP as a vehicle to assure the student’s placement on the middle school volleyball team.  

Please consider what position this places the volleyball coach in. Would he or she be required to place on the team all students that present with that IEP? What happens to students who are more skilled in volleyball? Will they be left off the team to make room for those that may be less skilled but show up at tryouts with an IEP in hand? It seems to me the school administrator is correct in taking the position that “opportunity to participate” is the correct one in this case.

Miranda: I was under the impression that the mom who wrote in simply wanted her daughter involved in some sort of athletic activity, and that the girl was being denied the chance to try. Student athletics should be there to aid students and provide opportunities that enrich their learning experience. If the child benefits from athletic participation but cannot make the team, then the school should allow her to play in an intramural league if available in that district or some other comparable opportunity.

But there’s a difference between participation and competition for available spots on the team. No school district should guarantee a student, even on with an IEP, a spot on a team that they cannot earn themselves. Every school should give every child the opportunity to attempt an extracurricular activity, despite disabilities. However, a disability shouldn’t give a student an advantage — it should just create the same chance every student has.

While I’m sure this volleyball team has been great for the daughter, if she doesn’t earn her spot, there are many other athletic opportunities she might try, like the ones I listed above. If, however, she is being denied the ability to try out due to low grades related to her disability, then the mom should proceed to fight for that. That school district, coaches, parents and players should remember one thing: Everyone deserves an equal chance — students with IEPs and students without them.

Dr. Wes: I’ve said before that you have to be a psychologist, attorney, educational advocate and a host of other professions to fully wrap your mind around the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and here we are again. IDEA allows for “supplementary aids and services” for students to be included in an IEP. Section 300.42 states that these aids can include “other supports that are provided in regular education classes, other education-related settings, and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings, to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate.” So it seems pretty clear to me that access to and participation in sports could be included in the IEP if it can be demonstrated to help the child succeed in school.

However, the definition of “participation” concerns today’s writer (a school employee), and for good reason. If the mom is asking that her daughter’s IEP allow her to play, perhaps benching more athletically deserving players, I would agree with the school. An IEP cannot require that a child star each year in the high school musical or be captain of the cheer squad. It can only remove barriers to trying out. The only academic barrier I am aware of in cases like this is grades. And for kids on an IEP, grades should not be the deciding factor, which is where we’ve tended to disagree with state athletic associations.

I emailed the mom and she assures me that her definition of participation did not require her daughter to play, but she did want her to be on the team. She adds that there is no limit on the number of kids allowed on the team, and thus her daughter would not be displacing anyone. She also notes that the school failed to offer any alternative solutions and did not provide the required written documentation as to why they refused the accommodation. This means they were out of compliance with IDEA.

So I thank you for requesting clarification. It never occurred to me that anyone would try and shoehorn their child onto a sports team by misusing an IEP — only that they would try to remove existing barriers, which is, in my opinion, exactly what this mom was trying to do for her daughter.